Taylor County stuns Sayre with walk-off rally in state baseball’s first round
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- Taylor County rallied in the seventh to beat Sayre 7-6 on a walk-off fly ball.
- Coach Gupton’s early pitching change nearly backfired before late-game heroics.
- Taylor County advances to face No. 1 Trinity in Saturday’s quarterfinals
Down to what could have been the last two outs of their season, Taylor County’s Cardinals clawed their way to a tie against Sayre in the bottom of the seventh inning and then walked off with a 7-6 win on Layken Lyons’ deep fly ball to left field moments later in the first round of the state high school baseball tournament Thursday at Kentucky Proud Park.
Lyons’ fly ball over a drawn-in outfield marked Taylor County’s fourth consecutive hit in a seventh inning the Cardinals entered trailing 6-5.
It was perhaps less spectacular than Grayson Kearney’s safety squeeze bunt down the third-base line that tied the game moments earlier. But Lyons’ hit brought the Cardinals’ celebration to full roar.
“I’m just so happy with this team,” Lyons said. “I mean, every game we’re fighting, and I’m just so proud of them. We never laid down for anyone.”
Austin Garrett started the seventh-inning rally with a smash off Sayre reliever Camden Stout’s glove that proved too hot to catch and too difficult to make a play on as it spun behind the mound.
Reece Vaughn followed with a double down the left-field line to put runners at second and third for Kearney’s bunt.
“We got risky there, but I was willing to go with it,” Taylor County coach Brandon Gupton said of the squeeze play. “We had talked about it, and that was one of my best bunters, and I said, ‘We’re going to roll with it.’ And he said, ‘Let’s go.’”
Gupton probably took a bigger gamble in the third inning when he pulled Cole McLean off the mound after just 30 pitches and 2⅓ scoreless innings.
The senior left-hander and Tennessee commit was recently named Kentucky Gatorade Player of the Year. It looked to be a move to save McLean for Saturday’s quarterfinals and Gupton acknowledged that was the plan.
But it immediately backfired as Sayre scored five runs in the third against reliever J.T. Johns to take the lead and tagged on another run an inning later that left Taylor County trailing 6-3 in the bottom of the fifth.
“I know. I know,” Gupton said when asked how bad the decision to pull McLean looked during Sayre’s rally, “But I said, ‘We’re going to stick to our guns.’ I believed that we would pull through it, and we did.”
Taylor County had been gifted a pair of runs by Sayre thanks to four walks around a hit against Spartans starter Owen Murphy. An error in the second inning after a hit by Vaughn and a walk to Kearney allowed Vaughn to score for a 3-0 Cardinals lead.
But Sayre quickly took advantage of McLean’s departure from the mound in the third with a single by Jaxon Herrera, a double by Charlie Slabaugh, an intentional walk to Gary Gibson and a hit batsman for Brody Beall that got Herrera across for the Spartans’ first run. Two-run singles by both Robbie Jenkins and Blake Miniard followed and put Sayre up 5-3 in a flash.
An inning later, Charlie Slabuagh turned a two-out walk into a run after taking second on a wild pitch and coming home on an RBI single by Gary Gibson.
In each of the next two innings, Sayre put runners aboard but could not get them home against Taylor County’s third reliever, Gabe Cole.
“When we took the 6-3 lead, we had a couple of chances to extend it and we didn’t,” Sayre coach Kevin Clary said. “I was afraid that would come back and haunt us and it did.”
Instead, it was Taylor County who scratched a pair of runs across in the bottom of the fifth inning as Silas Young’s double made Sayre pay for a leadoff walk to Gabe Cole. Sayre’s second error on a throw to first base moments later allowed Young to score to cut the Cardinals’ deficit to 6-5.
“The one thing I’ll say about my team — and it’s been all throughout the year — we’ve only got 14 guys, but we compete,” Gupton said. “We fight until the last out, and that’s all I’ve ever asked out of them.”
Next, No. 8 Taylor County (29-6) takes on No. 1 Trinity at 10 a.m. Saturday back at KPP for the Clark’s Pump-N-Shop Baseball State Tournament presented by UK HealthCare quarterfinals.
Sayre (30-7-1) finished the regular season as the No. 5 team in the state, according to the PrepBaseballReport.com rankings, and went on to win the program’s first 11th Region baseball championship.
“I told them that they’ve created a special legacy for Sayre baseball that’s going to be around for years to come,” Clary said. “One game doesn’t define a season. It didn’t come out the way we wanted, but we’re super proud of them. We love them. And they’re always going to be a Spartan.”
Thursday’s other first-round games
Wolfe County 4, No. 16 Harrison County 3: The Wolves (24-11) scored all four of their runs in the top of the seventh inning to stun the Thorobreds (32-5), who had allowed just two hits over the first six frames.
Max Whisman led off the seventh with a walk after going down 0-2 in the count against Harrison County starter Brian Vaughn. Landon McWhorter followed with a single to set up Brayden Wilson’s RBI double down the left-field line to get the Wolves on the scoreboard.
Jaxon Hollon reached on a bunt single to the pitcher to load the bases and bring Jayden Hollon up for a walk that pulled Wolfe County within a run, 3-2, with the bases still loaded and no one out.
Chance Fallen’s two-run, ground-rule double to left field on the first pitch he saw put Wolfe County in front.
Jayden Hollon sat the last three Harrison County players down in order in the bottom of the seventh to seal Wolfe County’s first state tournament win against a four-time state champion.
Jordan Persinger had a hit and two of the Thorobreds three RBIs.
No. 1 Trinity 12, Meade County 2 (5 innings): The No. 1 Shamrocks (35-3) made quick work of the unranked Green Wave (22-11) by plating six runs in the first inning on the way to a mercy-rule shortened first-round game.
Despite two outs in the first inning around a walk to Grayson Davis, Trinity strung together singles by Zach Floyd and Grayson Willoughby, a two-run double by Hudson Meredith, another hit by Harper Haywood and a two-run triple by Max Phillips for its 6-0 start.
Meade County answered in the top of the third inning when Austin Stansbury’s two-run single to center made the Rocks pay for three walks that loaded the bases with two out.
But Trinity followed with another run in the bottom half of the third, plus four runs in the fourth and the game-ending RBI double by Nolan Hoskins in the fifth to set the 10-run rule margin.
No. 14 Boyd County 11, No. 23 Boyle County 4: Grant Slater’s two-run triple sparked a six-run fifth inning for the Lions (30-5) who tagged on three more runs in the sixth to pull away from the Rebels (28-9).
Slater also picked up the win for five innings’ work, allowing three runs on three hits and four walks with eight strikeouts. Boyd sent nine different players across the plate with Connor Davis, Kaden Jones and Cole Adams each scoring twice. Brogan Jones had a sacrifice fly and a single that each scored a run.
Kyler Claunch led the Rebels with a pair of hits and three RBI.
State High School Baseball Tournament
Where: At UK’s Kentucky Proud Park
Tickets: GoFan.co/app/school/KHSAA
Streaming: KHSAA.tv
Friday’s first-round games
10 a.m.: McCracken County (29-8) vs. Lyon County (21-7)
1:30 p.m.: South Warren (30-8) vs. Highlands (27-7-1)
5 p.m.: Pleasure Ridge Park (26-6) vs. Corbin (20-17)
8:30 p.m.: Johnson Central (29-7) vs. Spencer County (27-8)
Saturday’s quarterfinals
10 a.m.: Trinity (35-3) vs. Taylor County (29-6)
1:30 p.m.: Boyd County (30-5) vs. Wolfe County (24-11)
5 p.m.: McCracken County-Lyon County winner vs. South Warren-Highlands
8:30 p.m.: Johnson Central-Spencer County winner vs. Pleasure Ridge Park-Corbin winner
June 13’s semifinals
Times TBD: Final Four
June 14’s finals
Time TBD: Championship game
